High production metal cutting machinery typically have loading and unloading devices associated with them to assist in the supply of parts to the metal cutting station and the removal of the finished parts therefrom. Many types of loading and unloading devices have been developed, however, most of these devices require multiple sequential indexing operations before the incoming part reaches the metal cutting station and do not simultaneously machine the part while a new incoming part is being indexed into position. In addition, most of the indexing operations involve changing the direction of travel of the incoming part which causes some parts to jam the incoming portions of these devices. These conditions appear to be especially true for loading and unloading devices used with automatic broaching machines. The loading and unloading devices for these machines typically have multiple indexing operations which change the direction of travel of the parts to be broached and do not utilize simultaneous indexing/machining operations. The end result is that the broaching operation is relatively slow, the broaching machine is not utilized at its optimum efficiency and jamming of incoming parts is relatively common.
Because of this, it has become desirable to develop a loading and unloading device that utilizes a minimum of indexing operations, that employs "straight through" feeding of parts to be machined, and that performs various operations, such as indexing and machining, simultaneously.